The Only Hope of Ireland

first published in The Blast! vol.1, no.13, page 2; May 15, 1916

Most Irishmen, in and out of Ireland, seem unanimous in condemning
the brutality of the British government toward the leaders of the
unsuccessful revolt.

There is no need to recite here the atrocious measures of
repression practiced by England toward her subject races. The
arrogant and irresponsible tyranny of the British government in this
relation is a matter of history. The point of interest just now is,
what did the Irish people, or at least the Sinn Feiners, expect
England to do in the given circumstances?

I am not interested in the weak-kneed editors of Irish-American
papers who bemoan, with all due decorum, Great Britain's "lack of
generosity" in dealing with the captured Sinn Feiners, or who hide
their cowardice by arguments about the "mistake" the British
government has committed by its harsh methods.

It is disgusting to hear such rot. As a matter of fact, it is
entirely in keeping with the character and traditions of the British
government to show no quarter to rebels. Those familiar with the
colonial history of Great Britain know that the English government
and its representatives have systematically practised the most
heinous brutality and repression to stifle the least sign of
discontent, in Ireland, in India, Egypt, South Africa--wherever
British rapacity found a source of aggrandizement. Burning villages,
destroying whole districts, shooting rebels by the wholesale, aye,
even resorting to the most inhuman torture of suspects, as in the
Southwestern Punjab and other parts of India--these have always been
the methods of the British government.

"The measures taken by us", said Sir Michael O'Dwyer, Governor of
the province of Punjab, in his Budget speech in the Punjab
Legislative Council, April 22, 1915, "have proven that the arm of the
Sirkar (British government) is long enough to reach and strong enough
to strike those who defy the law." The nature of this "long and
strong arm" is clearly characterized by Lord James Bryce:

"The English govern India on absolute principles.
There is in British India no room for popular initiative or popular
interference with the acts of the rulers, from the Viceroy down to
the district official. Society in India is not an ordinary civil
society. It is a military society, military first and foremost. The
traveler feels himself, except perhaps in Bombay, surrounded by an
atmosphere of gunpowder all the time he stays in India."

The Irish rebels and their sympathizers know all this. But what
they don't know, or refuse to admit, is that these methods of
suppressing discontent are not merely colonial policy. They have also
been practiced by the English government at home, against its native
sons, the English workers. Just now the iron hand of conscription is
driving thousands of Great Britain's toilers into involuntary
military servitude. Long terms of imprisonment are meted out to
everyone having conscientious scruples against murder, to every
anti-militarist protestant, and many have been driven to suicide
rather than turn murderers of their fellowmen. The Irish people, like
everyone else, ought to know that the claim of the English government
of "protecting weaker nations and fighting for democracy" is the most
disgusting hypocrisy ever dished up to a muttonhead public. Nor is
the British government in this respect any better or worse than the
governments of Kaiser, Czar or President. Government is but the
shadow the ruling class of a country casts upon the political life of
a given nation. And the priests of Mammon are always the ruling
class, whatever the temporary label of the exploiters of the people.

We don't fool anyone by paroting that it was 'a mistake' on the
part of the British government to use the sternest methods against
the Sinn Fein leaders. It was *not* a mistake. To the English
government, to *any* government, the only safe rebel is a dead rebel.
The ruthless shooting down of the insurrection leaders, the
barbourous execution of James Connolly, who was severely wounded in
the Dublin fighting and had to be propped with pillows that the
soldiers could take good aim at him -- all this may serve to embitter
the Irish people. But unless that bitterness express itself in
action, in reprisals -- individual or collective -- against the
British government, the latter will have no cause to regret its
severity. It is dangerous to let rebels live, If the Irish at home
have no more spirit than the Irish in America, the English government
has nothing to fear. The Irish-Americans are easily the most powerful
influence in American political life. What have these Irish-Americans
done to stop the atrocities of Great Britain? They have held mass
meetings here and there to 'protest' against the continuing
executions of Sinn Feiners. They have sufficient political power in
the country to cause President Wilson to call a halt to British
atrocities, to force the English government to treat the Sinn Feiners
as prisoners of war, which they are. But the Irish-American priests
of Church and State would not dream of such drastic measures:
politicians don't do that.

More effective yet it would have been if some member or members of
the numerous Irish societies had captured a few representatives of
the British government in this country as hostages for the Irish
rebels awaiting execution. A British Consul ornamenting a lamppost in
San Francisco or New York would quickly secure the respectful
attention of the British lion. The British Ambassador, in the hands
of Washington Irishmen, would more effectively petition his Majesty,
King Edward, for the lives of the Irish rebel leaders than all the
resolutions passed at mass meetings.

After all, it is the Redmonds and the Carsons who are chiefly
responsible for the failure of the rebellion in Ireland. They were
the first to condemn the 'rash step' of a people for centuries
enslaved and oppressed to the verge of utter poverty and degradation.
Thus they in the very beginning alienated the support that the
uprising might have received in and out of Ireland. It was this
treacherous and cowardly attitude of the Irish home rule politicians
that encouraged the English government to use the most drastic
measures in suppressing the revolt.

May outraged Ireland soon learn that its official leaders are like
unto all labor politicians: the lackeys of the rulers, and the very
first to cry Crucify!

The hope of Ireland lies not in home rule, nor its leaders. It is
not circumscribed by the boundaries of the Emerald Isle. The precious
blood shed in the unsuccessful revolution will not have been in vain
if the tears of their great tragedy will clarify the vision of the
sons ad daughters of Erin and make them see beyond the empty shell of
national aspirations toward the rising sun of the international
brotherhood of the exploited in all countries and climes combined in
a solidaric struggle for emancipation from every form of slavery,
political *and* economic